Orion Nebula vs Fraser Island Inferno at full Moon

[wayne anderson]

After 7 weeks straight of raging fires on Fraser Island and with the air thick with smoke as we are only 10 km from Fraser Island i finally had a night free for imaging and it was a full moon.

The wind started to blow and there were small gaps in the smoke allowing me to image M42 Orion Nebula, guiding was very difficult and several subs were rejected, I have to say I am very impressed with my new Optolong L- enhance filters ability to cut through the full moon light pollution. After imaging the scope was well covered in a thin layer of dust, it took some time to carefully clean.

I need to try this again without bushfire smoke and full moon, but for now after 8 weeks of severe bushfires i am happy to now see clouds and rain moving in.

4 x 300 sec subs at gain 90 bin1x1 ( Optolong L- enhance filter )
10 x 60 sec subs at gain 90 bin1x1 ( Optolong L- enhance filter )

(30 mins total)

Processed with DeepSkyStacker, Startools and gimp.

Scope: 12inch Meade LX200 at f6.3 (alt/az de-rotated)
Camera: ZWO ASI071MC pro
Guider: ZWO ASI120MM-S
ZWO ASIAIR pro
Optolong L- enhance filter

Photo of M42 and photo of full moon sky attached

Larger size and Full size image on astrobin:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/76ii1z/0/

[raymo]

Great job.
raymo

[Fernando]

Very nice image. And such adverse air pollution. Congratulations

[Zuts]

A great result from such a mucky sky. Do you need the L-Enhance where you are or were you just trying to avoid the moon?

I didn't realize you could get such good stars with such long exposures with a de-rotator, do you ever use a wedge?

[wayne anderson]

Thanks, Raymo, Fernando and Zuts.

Yes, due to light pollution in my area any sub more than 180 seconds gets washed out and at full moon even 60 sec subs can be washed out so the L-enhance filter works great allowing 300sec or longer.

I do not have a wedge but i am considering getting one but any wedge able to cope with the weight of a 12inch LX200 and attached gear(@~40kg) usually comes at a high price even at 2nd hand prices.

For now the Meade field de-rotator was cheap 2nd hand and works very well, other more expensive field de-rotators work even better, after some research I found advice that to get the best from the Meade field de-rotator you need to sync the mount on the object to allow the field de-rotator to use the correct de-rotation values for the area of sky being tracked.

Thanks, Wayne.

[Wilsil]

Great image.
I am still struggling with the processing.

[multiweb]

The details in the core are very nicely processed. :thumbsup:
Is it still burning even with all the rains you guys are getting these days?

[Sunfish]

Incredible amount of detail in through that smoke.

[N1]

I've been meaning to comment on this since I first saw it and had to look for it within the subforum today. I have to say this is one of the most impressive M42's I've come across. Not because of its level of detail or the amount of time spent processing the data. Or star shapes. I'll leave that to the experts. No, this has a 3D feel and sense of depth like very few others. It might be a combination of factors like contrast, orientation etc, but if that's really the nebula's shape, with a cavity inside a partly glowing cloud of dust illuminated from within, then this would have to be the best representation of those aspects of this object that I've ever seen. Well done!

[wayne anderson]

Thanks Mark,

Now you mention it, it does have a slight 3d feel, for reference and a different perspective the NASA Hyperwall site has a series of 3d visualization videos of Flight Through the Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared Light.

This visualization zooms into the Orion Nebula and then flies through a 3D model using both visible light (Hubble Space Telescope) and infrared light (Spitzer Space Telescope) views.

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30957


Thanks also to, Wilco, Marc and Ray.

[Robert_T]

lovely "glow" that really gives an edge to the finer detail... do I detects signs of using "reveal core" in Startools?